http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/29/single-demand-unite-palestinian-people/print
After another week of breathtaking demonstrations from Jordan to Yemen heralding dramatic revolutionary change, in occupied Palestine things appear much the same. The repetitions of bombing, air attacks on civilians, muted international protests, and dubious gestures towards a bankrupted peace process: all lend an air of futility and hopelessness to the trajectory of Palestinian freedom. Palestinians urgently need their voice to be represented at this historical moment in which unrepresentative rulers are being toppled by popular movements, and citizens are reclaiming their public squares and political institutions on the age-old principle of popular sovereignty.
Since January Palestinians in the refugee camps and under military occupation have all been asking the same question: is this not our moment too? Yet how are we to overcome the entrenched system of external colonial control and co-optation, the repression, the internal divisions and the geographical fragmentation that have until now kept us divided and unable to unify? The situation appears a thousand times more complex than Bahrain, or Egypt, or Libya, or Syria.
The solution to this fierce dilemma lies in a single claim now uniting all Palestinians: the quest for national unity. Although the main parties might remain irreconciled, the Palestinian people most certainly are not. Their division is not political but geographic: the majority are refugees outside Palestine, while the rest inside it are forcibly separated into three distinct locations. The demand is the same universal claim to democratic representation that citizens across the Arab world are calling for with such force and beauty: each Palestinian voice counts.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Khaled Diab : How African is the Arab revolution?
When I visited Kenya this month, it seemed that pretty much everyone I came across wanted to talk about the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, and the tragedy in Libya.
As soon as I touched down, the first person I came across – David, a Namibian public official who shared a taxi with me from the airport into town – confessed how compulsively he had been watching events unfold in Egypt, and how the north African revolutions evoked in his mind and those of other Namibians an excitement they had not felt since the fall of apartheid.
I was surprised that, on the other side of the continent, in a country with almost no political, economic, cultural or historical ties with Egypt, the Egyptian revolution could resonate so intensely. But perhaps I shouldn't have been, as there is something universally appealing about people braving oppression to defeat tyranny.
Besides, as one Kenyan NGO worker put it, millions of Africans are cursed with dictators and tyrants, and so the fact that some of the longest-serving leaders on the continent have been ousted or are on their way out – and all this through the unleashed power of ordinary people – is inspirational to marginalised and disenfranchised citizens across the continent.
So, could the spirit of the Arab revolution spread south into sub-Saharan Africa? Some people I met are hopeful that it will, citing the fact that many African countries share similar social, economic and demographic realities with Egypt and Tunisia, and that young Africans are waking up to their potential.
This "youthquake" certainly appears to be a factor in Nigeria. "As Nigerians prepare for presidential elections next month, what is happening, much less dramatically than in north Africa but with perhaps as much long-term significance, is that the youth is finally awake," Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote recently.
Kenya is a good example. Despite large income inequalities and a relatively high crime rate, clean and green Nairobi exudes prosperity and self-confidence. Though the city does not have much of a past, it exhibits a hope in the future and the power of freedom and knowledge. In fact, education seems to be a national obsession in Kenya, with some newspapers even leading with their education section.
Politically, Kenya has already had its own "revolution", when its former dictator, Daniel arap Moi, was forced to step down in 2002, and his anointed successor, who also happened to be the son of Kenya's founding father, was hammered at the ballot box.
Things have soured somewhat. Kenya's current president, Mwai Kibaki, has exhibited psuedo-dictatorial tendencies and managed to hold on to power in 2007 amid accusations of vote-rigging, which sparked a wave of protests and violence that rocked the country.
"In Kenya, we take
Abderrahmane Semmar: Une femme âgée d'une soixantaine d'année est morte, Émeutes à El Bayadh (Algérie)
http://juralibertaire.over-blog.com/article-emeutes-a-el-bayadh-algerie-30-mars-70599514.html
Une femme âgée d'une soixantaine d'année est morte, mercredi, asphyxiée par le gaz des bombes larcrymogènes lancées par des gendarmes lors des affrontements qui se déroulent depuis 9h à Kaf El Ahmra, dans la wilaya d'El Bayadh, a confié à elwatan.com, Mohamed Zouaoui, membre du bureau d'El Bayadh et du coseil national de la LADDH. «Cette femme est décédée à 10h30 lorsqu'une bombe lacrymogène a été jetée à l'intérieur de sa maison», indique notre interlocuteur.
De violents affrontements ont opposé mercredi des habitants de Kef El Ahmar, une commune située à une quarantaine de kilomètres d'El Bayadh, aux forces de la gendarmerie déployées depuis 9h du matin pour disperser un millier de jeunes qui ont manifesté contre la précarité de leur commune, a appris mercredi elwatan.com. Selon Hassan Bourras, membre du comité directeur de la LADDH et président du bureau de cettte organisation de défense des droits de l'Homme à El-Bayadh, une ville située à 650 km au sud-ouest d'Alger, au moins 30 blessés ont été recensés sur les lieux.
De violents affrontements ont opposé mercredi des habitants de Kef El Ahmar, une commune située à une quarantaine de kilomètres d'El Bayadh, aux forces de la gendarmerie déployées depuis 9h du matin pour disperser un millier de jeunes qui ont manifesté contre la précarité de leur commune, a appris mercredi elwatan.com. Selon Hassan Bourras, membre du comité directeur de la LADDH et président du bureau de cettte organisation de défense des droits de l'Homme à El-Bayadh, une ville située à 650 km au sud-ouest d'Alger, au moins 30 blessés ont été recensés sur les lieux.
Charif Kiwan : Les Syriens ont défié et brisé la loi du silence
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2011/03/31/les-syriens-ont-defie-et-brise-la-loi-du-silence_1501276_3232.html
Mais le roi ne paraît pas pour autant proche de sa fin. Car, à la différence de ses aînés arabes, le président syrien a deux corps : un corps de tyran et un corps de résistant. Le premier se meurt, atteint des mêmes maladies qui ont emporté les Ben Ali et compagnie. Tandis que le second rayonne, incarnant une aspiration nationale qui se nourrit de la nostalgie d'une Syrie naturelle charcutée par les vilains accords de Sykes-Picot en 1916 (qui ont remodelé le Moyen-Orient).
Le premier est honni dans la mesure où il est associé à un régime qui a poussé la répression jusqu'à l'anthropophagie et le népotisme jusqu'à l'inceste, alors que le second est l'objet d'une certaine fierté nationale. Une fierté plus ou moins bien assumée, née de l'humiliation accumulée depuis la défaite arabe de juin 1967, qui fait du jeune chef aux yeux bleus, généralissime de son état, le seul dirigeant arabe capable de tenir tête au vieux chef croisé, George W. Bush. Le seul dirigeant arabe, aussi, à soutenir les guérillas suicidaires du Hezbollah et du Hamas, censées ouvrir la voie à la libération de Jérusalem. Le seul dirigeant arabe, enfin, à prétendre oeuvrer à l'avènement d'une nation arabe une et indivisible, débarrassée de l'entité sioniste.
Mais le roi ne paraît pas pour autant proche de sa fin. Car, à la différence de ses aînés arabes, le président syrien a deux corps : un corps de tyran et un corps de résistant. Le premier se meurt, atteint des mêmes maladies qui ont emporté les Ben Ali et compagnie. Tandis que le second rayonne, incarnant une aspiration nationale qui se nourrit de la nostalgie d'une Syrie naturelle charcutée par les vilains accords de Sykes-Picot en 1916 (qui ont remodelé le Moyen-Orient).
Le premier est honni dans la mesure où il est associé à un régime qui a poussé la répression jusqu'à l'anthropophagie et le népotisme jusqu'à l'inceste, alors que le second est l'objet d'une certaine fierté nationale. Une fierté plus ou moins bien assumée, née de l'humiliation accumulée depuis la défaite arabe de juin 1967, qui fait du jeune chef aux yeux bleus, généralissime de son état, le seul dirigeant arabe capable de tenir tête au vieux chef croisé, George W. Bush. Le seul dirigeant arabe, aussi, à soutenir les guérillas suicidaires du Hezbollah et du Hamas, censées ouvrir la voie à la libération de Jérusalem. Le seul dirigeant arabe, enfin, à prétendre oeuvrer à l'avènement d'une nation arabe une et indivisible, débarrassée de l'entité sioniste.
Tarak Barkawi : Phantasms from the 1990s are upon us: no-fly zones
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201132881618969257.html
The cost of using only airpower against Gaddafi is strategic incoherence that will likely result in a stalemate [REUTERS]
Phantasms from the 1990s are upon us: no-fly zones; the rhetoric of humanitarian war in Washington, Europe and the UN; guarantees that no US ground troops will be deployed; an air war which alone cannot decisively affect earthbound events
President Obama swung for ringing tones in his statement on Libya, condemning idleness in the face of merciless tyrants who brutally assault innocents.
In the legal codes through which the international community acknowledges so untoward a happening as war, the UN resolved to protect civilians and create a cordon sanitaire around the blighted country.
But it was all a faraway echo from the Yugoslav heyday of believing people could be bombed for humanitarian effect.
The language of liberal war may still flow as easily in the West as Libya's sweet crude, but even the true believers are running on fumes on this one.
Few critics have even bothered to point out the obvious selectivity. Obama meant no idling before this particular tyrant, while the UN Security Council offered the beatific state of protected innocence to some Libyans only, not to Syrians, Yemenis, Palestinians or Bahrainis, much less those suffering in the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe or elsewhere.
Nonetheless the idea of liberal war, of the use of force for humanitarian objectives, continues to cloud opinion and profoundly informs the official terms of debate, in international forums and especially in Western Europe. It also shapes the character of coalition operations over Libya.
Denying war, the art of euphemisms
Liberal war is so useful, particularly to 'good Europeans', because it denies it is war. It is a no-fly zone protecting human rights!
Phantasms from the 1990s are upon us: no-fly zones; the rhetoric of humanitarian war in Washington, Europe and the UN; guarantees that no US ground troops will be deployed; an air war which alone cannot decisively affect earthbound events
President Obama swung for ringing tones in his statement on Libya, condemning idleness in the face of merciless tyrants who brutally assault innocents.
In the legal codes through which the international community acknowledges so untoward a happening as war, the UN resolved to protect civilians and create a cordon sanitaire around the blighted country.
But it was all a faraway echo from the Yugoslav heyday of believing people could be bombed for humanitarian effect.
The language of liberal war may still flow as easily in the West as Libya's sweet crude, but even the true believers are running on fumes on this one.
Few critics have even bothered to point out the obvious selectivity. Obama meant no idling before this particular tyrant, while the UN Security Council offered the beatific state of protected innocence to some Libyans only, not to Syrians, Yemenis, Palestinians or Bahrainis, much less those suffering in the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe or elsewhere.
Nonetheless the idea of liberal war, of the use of force for humanitarian objectives, continues to cloud opinion and profoundly informs the official terms of debate, in international forums and especially in Western Europe. It also shapes the character of coalition operations over Libya.
Denying war, the art of euphemisms
Liberal war is so useful, particularly to 'good Europeans', because it denies it is war. It is a no-fly zone protecting human rights!
د. نائل جرجس : تعيش أجيال وتموت في ظل حالة الطوارئ
تتعارض تشريعات قانون الطوارئ الحالي مع نصّ المادة الرابعة هذه، وهو ما سنبينه بالنقطتين الآتيتين:
أولا: جرى على تطبيق قانون الطوارئ 48 عاماً وبذلك فقد الصفة الاستثنائية المؤقتة بعكس ما أجازه العهد. فليس من المعقول أن تعيش أجيال وتموت في ظل حالة الطوارئ فهذه الأخيرة تعني وجود حالة طارئة استثنائية ولا يمكن أن تكون دائمة بأي شكل من الأشكال.
ثانيا: وجود تعارض لتشريعات الطوارئ الحالية مع بعض الحقوق الأساسية للإنسان وهو ما يخالف الفقرة الثانية من المادة الرابعة المذكورة أعلاه. وسأعطي بعض الأمثلة على ذلك:
هناك مادة قانونية معمول بها حاليا في سوريا بموجب قانون الطوارئ، ألا وهي المادة 16 من القانون رقم 14 لعام 1969. هذه الأخيرة تُعطي حصانة لعناصر الأمن في حال ارتكابهم جرائم حيث لا يجوز ملاحقتهم إلا بموافقة القائد المسؤول عنهم. فهل يُعقل أن يبقى العمل بهذه المادة منذ عقود، وأن لا يُحاسب أشخاص الأمن رغم اقترافهم لجرائم، في حال عدم موافقة رؤسائهم، ففي هذا تكريس لثقافة الإفلات من العقاب وتعطيل للسلطة القضائية. كما أنّ تشريعات قانون الطوارئ تُجيز الزج بأشخاص في السجن لفترات طويلة جدا ومن دون أية محاكمة أو بموجب محاكمات عسكرية واستثنائية تفتقر لأدنى معايير المحاكمة العادلة كالحق في الطعن والدفاع اللازم...، إلخ. حيث تُجيز تشريعات الطوارئ للحاكم العرفي ( الممثل للسلطة التنفيذية) بأن يُصدق قرارات محكمة أمن الدولة التي لا يجوز الطعن القضائي بأحكامها، وهذا فيه خرق واضح لمبدأ فصل السلطات الثلاث (التشريعية والتنفيذية والقضائية) وكذلك استقلالية القضاء المضمون بمقتضى الدستور السوري ( المادة 131). هذا بالإضافة إلى تقييد الحق في حرية التنقل ومراقبة الإعلام والمخابرات، إلخ.
وبالتالي نرى بأنّ إعمال تشريعات الطوارئ طوال العقود الماضية في سوريا هو غير قانوني ويعود بشكل أساسي إلى عدم استقلالية القضاء أو إلى جهل القاضي بأن العهد الدولي يسمو على القانون الداخلي وهو كما أكّدته صراحة الحكومة السورية في العديد من المحافل الدولية.
وبالعودة إلى التظاهرات السلمية التي تشهدها البلاد حالياً وبالإضافة إلى الضمانات القانونية لها، فقد أكّد وزير الإعلام السوري محسن بلال منذ عام 2008، خلال مداخلة له على تلفزيون الجزيرة في برنامج بلا حدود (المقابلة موجودة على موقع اليوتوب)، بأن الشعب السوري يحق له التظاهر واستبعد على الإطلاق بأن يتم قمع المظاهرات في حال حدوثها. ونفس الأمر أكدته حديثا السيدة بثينة شعبان وأشارت إلى أنّ رئيس الجمهورية لم يأمر بإطلاق النار على المتظاهرين.
وبالرغم من وجود هكذا ضمانات قانونية وتصريحات حكومية، فقد أسفنا لقمع المتظاهرين السلميين وهو ما أدى إلى سقوط مئات القتلى و الجرحى من أبناء الشعب السوري نتيجة لإطلاق الرصاص الحي عليهم أو حتى عدم حمايتهم من "البلطجية" حيث أنّ واجب الحكومة حماية مواطنيها وضمان حقهم في الحياة. وللردّ على بعض التصريحات الحكومية التي تقول بأنّ استعمال القوة كان فقط ضد عصابات مسلحة، فإننا نسألهم هل المعتصمين المتضامنين مع ضحايا الشعبين الليبي والمصري في ساحة باب توما-دمشق وأمام السفارة الليبية كانوا من المسلحين ؟ وهل أتى المتضامنين وأهالي المعتقلين السياسيين إلى أمام مبنى وزارة الداخلية في حي المرجة بدمشق، يوم 16 آذار/مارس 2011، بأسلحة حتى يتم الاعتداء عليهم بالضرب واعتقال حوالي الثلاثين شخص من بينهم.
ومن هنا نرى بأنه لا مبرر للقمع الذي طال ويطال أبناء الشعب السوري من اعتقالات لمشاركين أو حتى داعين لهذه التظاهرات السلمية التي تُطالب بمكافحة الفساد والرشوة وتأميم الخليوي وإطلاق الحريات العامة ومكافحة الفقر والبطالة وإلغاء قانون الطوارئ، وبالتالي ندعو إلى ملاحقة المسؤولين عن سقوط الضحايا والإفراج الفوري عن كافة المعتقلين. وأخيرا نأمل من جميع الداعين أو المشاركين بالتظاهرات بأن يبتعدوا عن التخريب والحرق والعنف والطائفية وأن تكون هناك اعتصامات سلمية حضارية من أجل تحقيق هذه المطالب المشروعة جدا والتي يستحقها الشعب السوري بكافة أطيافه وأعراقه.
If you read nothing else, PLEASE READ THIS:There's no business like war business : Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MC30Ak01.html
...Right on cue, the "Interim Transitional National Council" has got a new finance minister, US-educated economist Ali Tarhouni. He disclosed that a bunch of Western countries gave them credit backed by Libya's sovereign fund, and the British allowed them to access $1.1 billion of Gaddafi's funds. This means the Anglo-French-American consortium - and now NATO - will only pay for the bombs. As war scams go this one is priceless; the West uses Libya's own cash to finance a bunch of opportunists Libyan rebels to fight the Libyan government. And on top of it the Americans, the Brits and the French feel the love for all that bombing. Neo-cons must be kicking themselves; why couldn't former US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz come up with something like this for Iraq 2003?
...Essentially, the Benghazi revolt coq au vin had been simmering since November 2010. The cooks were Mesmari, air force colonel Abdullah Gehani, and the French secret service. Mesmari was called "Libyan WikiLeak", because he spilled over virtually every one of Gaddafi's military secrets. Sarkozy loved it - furious because Gaddafi had cancelled juicy contracts to buy Rafales (to replace his Mirages now being bombed) and French-built nuclear power plants.
....The oh so convenient bogeyman resurfaces. The Anglo-French-American consortium - and now NATO - are (again) fighting alongside al-Qaeda, represented by al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQM).
...Right on cue, the "Interim Transitional National Council" has got a new finance minister, US-educated economist Ali Tarhouni. He disclosed that a bunch of Western countries gave them credit backed by Libya's sovereign fund, and the British allowed them to access $1.1 billion of Gaddafi's funds. This means the Anglo-French-American consortium - and now NATO - will only pay for the bombs. As war scams go this one is priceless; the West uses Libya's own cash to finance a bunch of opportunists Libyan rebels to fight the Libyan government. And on top of it the Americans, the Brits and the French feel the love for all that bombing. Neo-cons must be kicking themselves; why couldn't former US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz come up with something like this for Iraq 2003?
...Essentially, the Benghazi revolt coq au vin had been simmering since November 2010. The cooks were Mesmari, air force colonel Abdullah Gehani, and the French secret service. Mesmari was called "Libyan WikiLeak", because he spilled over virtually every one of Gaddafi's military secrets. Sarkozy loved it - furious because Gaddafi had cancelled juicy contracts to buy Rafales (to replace his Mirages now being bombed) and French-built nuclear power plants.
....The oh so convenient bogeyman resurfaces. The Anglo-French-American consortium - and now NATO - are (again) fighting alongside al-Qaeda, represented by al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQM).
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